Korean Job Discussion Forums

[murmanjake]

This idea was birthed in the off-topic forum as a thread to shame perpetrators of grammar/spelling mistakes into cleaning up their act. I think its rightful place may be here, though, considering that many of us are ESL teachers, and whatever mistakes we habitually make are probably being passed along to our students.

I know, I know, everyone makes mistakes, me included. And message boards are not bastions of perfect grammar. Sure your writing can be more relaxed here. I don't mind a "gotta" or "wanna" thrown in here or there. What I'm talking about, though, are mistakes that are less intentional. Like using "their" instead of "they're." You can't tell me you're writing that way 'cause you feel like it. If you were thinking straight you probably would have corrected it.

So let's make a list of common mistakes made by Native English Speakers. For some it may be an exercise in humility, for others a chance to vent upon those that butcher the English language daily. It could even be a useful tool for those that just want to increase their awareness of "proper" English.

Common Writing Mistakes

they're, their, there

they're=they are
their=possessive pronoun
there=location

The penguins are sitting on their eggs over there. They're keeping them warm.

advice, advise
advice=noun
advise=verb

I'd advise you to take my advice and shut the hell up.

it's, its
it's=it is
its=possessive pronoun

It's sad that the tiger lost its cubs in that fire.

lead, led

lead=present
led=past

Last year you led the parade. I want to lead it this year!

accept, except

accept=verb
except=preposition or conjunction, and sometimes verb

Will you accept my apology.
Everyone went except for me.


your,you're
your=possessive pronoun
you're=you are

What do you mean, busy? You're just going to sit on your butt all day.

everyday, every day
everyday=adjective
every day=two words

This is my everyday life.
I see this mistake every day.

effect, affect

effect=usually a noun
affect=usually a verb

My health was negatively affected by the poor air quality here.
A typical effect of overeating is weight gain.

Two links to very helpful resources in determining common usage of words.

The British National Corpus
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/

Corpus of Contemporary American English
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/x.asp?w=1024&h=600


If anyone has better ways of explaining these points, please post and I will do my best to update here.

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

I think you might enjoy this...

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

^^

[schwa]

The past form of "lead" is spelled "led."

[raewon]

everyday / every day

This is my everyday life.

I see this mistake every day.

[blackjack]

Your You're

Your -possessive pronoun
You're -You are

[notinKS]

except/accept

accept: verb

Will you accept my apology?

except: preposition or conjunction

Everyone went except for me.

[murmanjake]

[swashbuckler]

It seems obvious but..

'effect' and 'affect'

[morrisonhotel]

How about commonly perceived mistakes? My personal favourite is 'spelt'. I've seen several posters on Dave's try to correct people writing the word 'spelled' this way without them realising that not everyone uses American English.

[murmanjake]

[morrisonhotel]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[Reise-ohne-Ende]

[nero]

Murman Jake, are you sure this is correct?

Please except me from jury duty as I am busy caring for my sick grandmother.

Are you sure you don't mean exempt?
I'm genuinely curious, btw, I've never heard except being used in that context.